Clothes Swapped at 'Naked Ladies' Event

There were no actual naked ladies to be found at the Naked Ladies Brunch and Clothing Swap at the Women’s Center yesterday.

Instead, this third semiannual event displayed a greater collaborative effort than in the past. For the first time since the inaugural brunch in fall 2006, the Women’s Center worked with the Harvard Vestis Council, which provided members to act as wardrobe consultants at the clothing swap.

Starting last Monday, students brought their used clothing to the Women’s Center, where they were given a ticket for each item they donated.

Yesterday, they traded each ticket for any piece of clothing that caught their eye. Students could also buy tickets at the brunch for $1 apiece.

About 60 visitors browsed through the neatly folded piles of clothing, munching on homemade frittata and crème brulée French toast that had been cooked in the Women’s Center kitchen by Director Susan B. Marine and Staff Assistant Bridget K. Duffy.

Tzu-Ying Chuang ’10 said that she was looking for a tank top.

“You can’t really have anything specific in mind because it’s very haphazard, but you can definitely get lucky,” she said.

After hearing from a graduate student that an unofficial women’s center of the 1990s had hosted a Naked Ladies Brunch, Women’s Center intern Natasha S. Alford ’08 reintroduced the event last year.

“I thought it would be great to revive a tradition from the days of old,” she said.

Alford noted that the social space at the Women’s Center enabled the interns to improve the event from its previous incarnations. “I think this is probably on a bigger scale than they probably ever had,” she said.

Leftover clothing, as well as proceeds from the sale of tickets, will be donated to local charities to be chosen by the event planners.

Women’s Center intern Kameron A. Collins ’09 said that he felt associating the brunch with a charitable cause was a selling point for the event.

“It taps into two interests that students have, which are public service and fun,” he said.

President of the Vestis Council Abigail M. Baird ’08 said she saw another advantage to the clothing swap.

“It’s a really great way to experiment with how you express yourself,” she said.

—Staff writer Diane J. Choi can be reached at dchoi@fas.harvard.edu.